Cloud computing is a computing environment in which processes operate statelessly. In a typical cloud computing environment, a user's process may operate on a fabric of hardware platforms within one or more datacenters, and the datacenter operator may be able to move the user's process from one server or hardware platform to another. Since the datacenter operator may perform such moves at different times, the processes executing on the cloud computing environment may not store state within the processes.
In contrast to cloud computing processes, many conventional applications may store state in the form of operating system registry settings, configuration files, and other changes. In order for the application to perform as expected over time, the state for the application may persist and may be recalled from time to time or when the application is restarted.